911 operator gets jail time for hanging up on emergency calls

A former 911 operator in Houston has been found guilty of interfering with emergency telephone calls and is now facing jail time.

Authorities say Crenshanda Williams routinely hung up on emergency callers from October 2015 through March 2016. Documents indicate the number is in the thousands.

Court documents also highlighted one incident in 2016 with a caller named Jim Moten. He called 911 to report two cars speeding down the highway. Mere seconds into the call, the line was dead. Moten thought the call dropped.

Williams’ attorney told ABC 13 that that his client “routinely hit ‘not ready’ on her computer as calls came into the Houston Emergency Center. Williams didn’t realize that action actually disconnected the calls. She assumed it went to an operator who was ready to take that call. She might have been bad at her job, but she is not a criminal,” he said, according to the local station.

Williams is no longer a 911 operator. She has been sentenced to 10 days in jail and 18 months probation. The 10 days in jail can be served over a series of weekends.

Firefighter under fire

Williams is not the only emergency services worker to find herself in a courtroom. Terrence Jeremy Skeen, a 42-year-old, 15-year veteran of the Kansas City Fire Department, has regained his job as a first responder after being suspended for allegedly spitting on and hurling racist insults at a three-year-old Black child.

According to the Kansas City Star, Skeen’s attorney Tom Bath says the first responder was “suspended incorrectly” and will be pleading not guilty in his trial next month. The charges are battery, assault and disorderly conduct.

Racial slurs were thrown towards a three-year-old at a Hooters in Overland Park, KS (20 minutes outside of Kansas City, MO) by a first responder according to witnesses. The witness said they were flabbergasted when an off-duty firefighter told police he was a first responder.